1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an improved data processing system, and in particular to a computer implemented method, apparatus, and a computer program product for an input method capable of transforming character data input in one writing system to corresponding character data of a related writing system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Input methods have been developed to accommodate the various languages and scripts of users around the world. For example, the Chinese language includes standard scripts or sets of characters known as Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese. Simplified Chinese is primarily used in mainland China and Singapore, while Traditional Chinese is used in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Many of the computer operating systems and applications provide support for both scripts.
The primary difference between Simplified and Traditional Chinese is in the system of writing involving the structure of the characters, rather than in the pronunciation or grammar. Therefore, a person from mainland China can converse with a person from Taiwan with relative ease, but may have difficulties when communicating in a written form.
While one-to-one mappings between Simplified and Traditional Chinese characters exist for many characters, one-to-many mappings also are present. In these cases, one Simplified Chinese character will have more than one Traditional Chinese equivalent. A one-to-one phrase mapping may be used to resolve the one-to-many character mapping problem. A Chinese phrase usually consists of between two to four characters and a Simplified Chinese phrase typically has an equivalent Traditional Chinese phrase.
Chinese input methods have been created to accommodate the entering of Chinese characters of either writing system. These input methods support either structure based input or phonetic based input. While input methods have been designed to support the two different input styles, an input method typically only supports one style. In cases where the input method supports both Simplified and Traditional character sets, the user has to be proficient at using both character sets. Most users of Chinese character sets are comfortable using one or the other character set and not both. For example, a user who is adept at the use of Simplified Chinese will typically have difficulty using Traditional Chinese character input. In a similar manner, the Traditional Chinese character user would typically have problems if required to use a Simplified Chinese character input.
Tools exist for the translation or conversion of characters from one character set to another. These tools typically focus on translating a character, or string of characters, in a coded character set into an equivalent character, or string of characters, in another coded character set. Problems still arise when the difference between the source and target characters involve different character sets with different input methods in multiple writing systems.